Like designers all over the world, Australian fashion labels are collaborating with global character properties for limited editions and/or capsule collections. In the last six months, several such deals have been announced, crossing a variety of categories: Apparel. Leroy Nguyen launched a capsule collection of five items, from sweat tops to dresses, featuring Hello Kitty, […]
Archive | International
Heading for the Finnish
Properties from Finland, especially from the worlds of design, digital entertainment, and publishing, are expanding their activities on the global market this year. Many are classics, or at least well established, but their profiles are on the upswing, each for its own reasons. On the design side, Marimekko, which has been known for its brightly […]
It’s a Mystery
Live-action TV mysteries for adults have seen a bit of a boost in licensing activity—albeit narrow in scope—in their home countries over the past year. The properties in question hail from the U.K. and Australia, and all air on public television stations in some or all U.S. markets. Winning Moves UK announced in January that […]
Chinese Children Cherish Licensed Publishing
Three of the seven best-selling children’s book series in China at the moment are based on licensed properties, and they may not necessarily be the ones you would expect. Two are tied to global brands. China Children’s Publishing offers books based on the mobile game Plants vs. Zombies, licensed by Electronic Arts’ PopCap Games division, […]
Gaining a Foothold
After many years of anticipation, soccer finally seems to be reaching a tipping point at U.S. retail. As a result, a number of leading global football clubs have retained U.S. licensing agents within the past year to assist them in expanding their presence in North America. Most are working with one of three agents that […]
Man’s Best Friend
Art trends come and go, but photographs of cute dogs and cats—often dressed, digitally or otherwise, and/or behaving anthropomorphically—always seem to be in style. That ongoing popularity has translated to well-established global licensing programs for pet photographers based in territories all around the world: American Keith Kimberlin offers a large archive of photographs of kittens […]
A Note from London
The stationery category in U.K. retail stores provides a showcase for lifestyle brands, fashion labels, and artists. Several of the high-end London department stores—Liberty, Harrod’s, Fortum & Mason, and John Lewis—have stationery departments where licensed collections are boutiqued, for example. At Liberty, an array of fashion designer Christian LaCroix’s note cards and journals is featured […]
Of Brits and Baking
One observation from recent visits to several supermarkets in London—Sainsburys, Tesco, and Waitrose among them—is the strong role licensing plays in bakery-related categories, namely cake and cupcake kits and celebration cakes. Cake kits are pouch-packaged cake, cookie, or cupcake mixes with a value-added accessory, such as a cookie cutter or a set of cupcake cases, […]
Asian Licensors Look Abroad
Entertainment properties from the key Asian territories of Japan, China, and Korea have been strengthening their focus on international territories of late, both in other Asian countries and beyond. The classic Japanese preschool property Anpanman, a book-based TV series that is estimated to drive $1 billion or so in retail sales of licensed goods each […]
West Meets East
U.S.-based licensors of classic characters are making inroads into the Chinese market by forging deals with fashion-forward retail operators. Three examples announced in the last month illustrate the trend: Twentieth Century Fox paired with Her-Chain Clothing, a multibrand retailer, and HongFang Group to open Simpsons flagship apparel stores across the country. King Features and its […]